“If you get it back, how do we put a value on it?”
“Get it surveyed as is by a licensed marine appraiser.”
He frowned, and then stuck his beefy paw out. We shook hands and he said, “Done. Tell you a secret. I’d almost give you full value just to get one back at the scum that took it away and left me nothing but a hundred-and-ninety-dollar Danforth anchor and ten feet of rubber-coated chain.”
Millis had finished gardening. She hosed off her tools and shut them up in a little blue locker and then came and sat with us. “Billy told me you did find a boat for someone, Mr. McGee.”
“Years ago,” I told her. “Five at least. It belonged to one of the Cuban buddies of Batista who got out just before Castro removed his head. And he bought a house, a motor sailer and the good life with money he’d squirreled away in Chase Manhattan while he was still a Cuban politico. Those particular immigrants aren’t my favorite people. Anyway, he used a Cuban crew, and the wrong batch of Cubans took it right out of its slip at a Miami yacht club and sailed it away. There was joy and rejoicing in the Cuban community.”
“How did you get it back?” she asked.
The question was mild, but it had a contentious sound. Just a little too much emphasis on the “you.” How could you do anything so difficult? And a faint expression of disdain, a challenge in her flat stare. New wife in the long, dogged process of detaching her husband from all prior friendships.
“Somebody told me where I could find the Aliciente. She’d been renamed the Priscilla. Two months after Calderone got her back, she blew up one night twenty miles off Key West with him aboard.”
“Somebody just happened to tell you where to find it?” She wore an expression of vivid disbelief. “Why would anyone do that?”
“If you’ve got about a day and a half to spare, Millis, we could sit around and I could try to explain what I’ve learned about Cuban refugee politics in Miami.”
“I’m sure you have better things to do.”
“I’d guess we both do.”
“What’s with you two?” Billy asked angrily. “How’d you both get off on the wrong foot so fast?”
She stood up. “Sorry, Billy. I guess I’m just fascinated by people who can accomplish impossible things.” She headed for the doorway into the apartment and turned and said, “What does Aliciente mean, Mr. McGee?”
“Temptation,” I told her. She nodded, without surprise, as if she had known the meaning of the name and wondered if I did. I saw something in the back of her eyes, something that moved and challenged, creating awareness. We were in a silent communication inaccessible to the husband sitting heavily beside me.
When she was gone, Billy said, “Sorry about that. She always tries to keep me from being taken by some con artist. She thinks I’m too trusting. Hell, I’ve followed my instinct all my life and it hasn’t hurt me more than three or four times. You’re giving me a proposition where I can’t lose. I pay you nothing, or I buy my boat back for half its market value.”
Dedicated to our special group of Kiwis, with love
BY JOHN D. MACDONALD
The Brass Cupcake
Murder for the Bride
Judge Me Not
Wine for the Dreamers
Ballroom of the Skies
The Damned
Dead Low Tide
Cancel All Our Vows
All These Condemned
Area of Suspicion
Contrary Pleasure
A Bullet for Cinderella
Cry Hard, Cry Fast
You Live Once
April Evil
Border Town Girl
Murder in the Wind
Death Trap
The Price of Murder
The Empty Trap
A Man of Affairs
The Deceivers
Clemmie
Cape Fear (The Executioners)
Soft Touch
Deadly Welcome
Please Write for Details
The Crossroads
The Beach Girls
Slam the Big Door
The End of the Night
Where Is Janice Gantry?
One Monday We Killed Them All
A Key to the Suite
A Flash of Green
The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything
On the Run
The Drowner
The House Guest
End of the Tiger and Other Stories
The Last One Left
S*E*V*E*N
Condominium
Other Times, Other Worlds
Nothing Can Go Wrong
The Good Old Stuff
One More Sunday
More Good Old Stuff
Barrier Island
A Friendship: The Letters of Dan Rowan and John D. MacDonald, 1967–1974
THE TRAVIS MCGEE SERIES
The Deep Blue Good-by
Nightmare in Pink
A Purple Place for Dying
The Quick Red Fox
Bright Orange for the Shroud
Darker Than Amber
One Fearful Yellow Eye
Pale Gray for Guilt
The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper
Dress Her in Indigo
The Long Lavender Look
A Tan and Sandy Silence
The Scarlet Ruse
The Turquoise Lament
The Dreadful Lemon Sky
The Empty Copper Sea
The Green Ripper
Free Fall in Crimson
Cinnamon Skin
The Lonely Silver Rain
The Official Travis McGee Quizbook
About the Author
John D. Macdonald was an American novelist and short story writer. His works include the Travis McGee series and the novel The Executioners, which was adapted into the film Cape Fear. In 1962 MacDonald was named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America; in 1980 he won a National Book Award. In print he delighted in smashing the bad guys, deflating the pompous, and exposing the venal. In life he was a truly empathetic man; his friends, family, and colleagues found him to be loyal, generous, and practical. In business he was fastidiously ethical. About being a writer, he once expressed with gleeful astonishment, “They pay me to do this! They don’t realize, I would pay them.” He spent the later part of his life in Florida with his wife and son. He died in 1986.